My wife and I use the Zillow app extensively to help us get the drop on homes that are being added to the market. One of our factors in buying a home is "how much are we going to have to put into this house to make it our home". I know, that sounded a little cheesy, but getting a good idea of home improvement costs should be a serious consideration when buying or selling a house.

Zillow has just launched Digs, an iPad and web app that lets users view photos of actual home remodels and get a proprietary estimate on the cost of that project broken down by materials and labor, based on the user's location. Reminiscent to how Pinterest works, users can create, save and share their own home improvement/remodel project boards, in addition to viewing, commenting, and following other Diggs user's boards. When users are ready to "pull the trigger" on a project, users can connect with local home improvement professionals for help.

“Tens of millions of home buyers shop for homes on Zillow each month, and home improvement is a natural next step for us in consumer empowerment and transparency of information to help people make smarter decisions,” said Spencer Rascoff, CEO at Zillow. So it makes sense that it would take that data and combine it with real-world data from local contractors such as size, materials, finish level, and regional labor and material rates to give homeowners and prospective buyers a better idea on how much their home really costs after they add in home improvements, repairs and remodels.

If you're looking for some improvement ideas for your next home purchase, or need to add a little flare to your own home, check out the video demo of Zillow Digs and let me know what you think.

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